[ No headline ]

One man's job is another man's pink slip. Or so it would seem. Robert A. Georgine, president of the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department, is asking Congress to back construction of seven major coal slurry pipeline systems. He says they can bring economic benefits by transporting coal efficiently and economically and can be built with adequate environmental safeguards. The project also would provide construction jobs for about 150,000 workers. But currently, coal from this country's 475 billion tons of known reserves moves by rail.

No small wonder that AFL-CIO's railroad unions oppose the pipeline project. It would cost some of their members' jobs.m